Grouchy CMs low quality standards and other things from our trip...

[raven]

I'll say this, I never let anyone abuse an employee. And I always told an employee if they get angry, flustered or whatever to take a break, which is the common thing for managers to do.

I'm not talking about guests screaming or abusing a CM. Not at all.

I'm talking about rude employees who are having a bad day. There's no excuse for it. And Disney CM's are VERY good employees. But one rude or bad employee is too much.

Once again, it's different once you are employed by the company. Common ways of thinking just don't happen the way they should.

 

[draybook]

It doesn't matter who it is that works there. If those people leave because they are unhappy then their spots will get filled by more people that will eventually become unhappy as well. It's a vicious cycle. The Casting Center isn't exactly flooded every day with thousands of smiling people breaking down the door to work for peanuts in a stressful place.

I understand, but my point is that those more stressful jobs most likely get paid more than minimum wage, like starting frontline CMs do.

Yes, you are completely correct. But, again... you can only expect so much from people making minimum wage.

Once again, who's forcing these people to work for peanuts and/or minimum wage? I distinctly remember my employer telling me during the interview process what my wages would be. They also told me the expectations of what my job entailed. So, acting like these people were caught by surprise about their wages and using it as an excuse to have a bad day is insane.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Its not about them being "forced" to work there.

Ever the BEST Cast Member you have ever seen or can think of has their "off days" too. The ones that love WDW just as much as any of you. All of you, who have not been a CM, seem to think that if you were to work there, you would be 100% happy at work all the time and have no problems. Well, guess what, I'm sure every CM who chose to work at Disney over a higher-paying job because they love it assumes the same thing... and then they STILL have their "off" days.

People hold Disney CMs to such ridiculously high standards, when really you should be thankful that 90% of the ones you encounter on any given day are going to be nice and helpful (unless you are out-of-line rude to them) on their own free will with honestly no real incentive to do it.

 

[misterID]

Maybe you guys are taking this as an indictment on all CM's, but there ARE bad employees who work at Disney too. There are rude CM's. And right or wrong, a guest isn't going to care if the CM is having a bad day or not or what their pay scale is if they get an attitude from them. The OP has a right (they spent the money) to complain if they have a bad experience with a CM. These bad apples do not represent disney employees as a whole, we know that. But if you have that experience you should be able to call them out. They paid a lot of money for those ridiculously high standards.

And yes, I do know what you guys go through with horrible guests. That's not what I'm saying. I also know there are horrible employees, too. Like everywhere.

I can say the good CM's who aren't having a good day can fake it, or at least still be pleasent. And I can say I've had many, many more good experiences with CM's than bad.

 

[raven]

Once again, who's forcing these people to work for peanuts and/or minimum wage? I distinctly remember my employer telling me during the interview process what my wages would be. They also told me the expectations of what my job entailed. So, acting like these people were caught by surprise about their wages and using it as an excuse to have a bad day is insane.

Once again, there aren't tons of overly cheery people that show up to Casting that want to work for such low income. That just doesn't happen. And even though those type of people get hired all the time they eventually get the real taste of the business. It doesn't take much to turn a tinkerbell into a villian.

 

[kashmir]

Would you be in a good mood if you were forced to work 12 hours on Christmas Day? I think not...:shrug:

In Bad Weather, Too?

 

[kashmir]

As a mom of a regular employee of Disney, I get to hear those stories, too. I hear of the threats made by guests to cms who are generally just following the rules of the parks. I hear about the drunk parents who lose their kids and don't even try to find them for hours because they left them somewhere while they ride a ride their kids can't go on. Has your child ever had a car touch their leg because they were telling the rude guest the parking lot was closed and the driver figured if they continued moving forward the CM would let them in anyway? Many guests walk through the gates with attitude and throw it at the cms as if they were second class citizens. For every rude CM comment on here there are probably as many rude guest comments being made after hours by the CMS just talking about a normal day at work. Of course you also hear about the wonderful guests who the CMs interact with, the cool parents , and even the celebrities that treat them with kindness.

As for conflicting advice from cms etc. Many were doing jobs this week they had never done before. They had lifeguards from the waterparks office workers, and anyone on the payroll working in the major parks any hours and times they could work trying to keep enough cms there for the crowds. Even though my son has worked for Disney for almost 10 years this was the first time he ever worked at EPCOT or the MK . So for the baby swap mentioned(etc), the CMS probably weren't trained for that
event in the few minutes they were briefed to stand at the line acting as line monitor etc.. The CMs brought in to help probably did not know all the proper things to say and do in each position they filled. They gave up their time to be with their families on their hours or days off to help make the guests stay in the world the best they could.

Love your post! Thanks for enlightening us!

 

[draybook]

For the record, I only had one CM that was unpleasant but I pretty much laughed it off.

 

[mastif]

Wow. So within a 7 day (ish) period, you worked 3 days that were around 20 hours each (not counting any other days you may have worked during that time)? I'm sorry, and I KNOW I'll be nailed for this, but whether you were '...just working the platform...' or not, that makes me nervous. I don't know that I want anyone on their 19th hour of the day...especially if it's their 3rd day like that in the past week...especially if they were sick...anywhere near transportation that I might be on, just because you were able to get some OT because of EMH. I don't know you from a hole in the wall and obviously can't judge you or your performance. So I hope you do understand why I say that makes me nervous.

You probably shouldn't go to WDW during the holidays anymore. While 20hr shifts aren't common, 10-15hr shifts are.,,

 

[E P C O T]

Void.

 

[Courtney1188]

Whatever happened to giving people the benefit of a doubt? Everyone has off days, or even off moments. Yes, you should try to push past them. But you have no idea what the last guest said to them, what kind of horrible news they could of just gotten that day from home, etc. Yesterday I found out while at work that my grandma had been in a serious car accident, and you know what? The next couple customers I sold TVs to probably didn't get service as cheery as the ones before I got the call. Cut people some slack, they're only human.

And if a CM is not trained in how to do the baby swap or something like that, it needs to be taken up with their manager. On my CP I was never trained on baby swap - I knew it existed and asked about how it worked, and still never had the process shown to me.

 

[wdwaddict71]

Well, I was in the infantry, does that count as being harder than working at a theme park? And I wasn't making crap wages either. Anyone going to host a pity party for me?

LOL, this is driving me nuts too. On this board, I'm sure we have plenty of people with harder jobs. People who risk their lives on a daily basis, who routinely work 12 hour, 16 hour and sometimes shifts that go over 24 hours(not uncommon with OR call). People who may very well get shot at on the job and people who educate children while trying to deal with some parents that don't know(or care) how to raise kids.

Now, I can tell what some are going to say..these jobs probably make more than most CMs.. True, but all of these jobs either require schooling and/or extensive OTJ training.

IMHO, comparing a CMs job to someone in the military, law enforcement, healthcare, education etc is simply presumptious at best and stupid at worst. Can it be hard at times? I'm sure, but as hard as some other jobs? Certainly not.

Most CMs do a good job and I appreciate those who act professionally, no matter what job they hold. But again, if you don't like your job and are going to decide to take it out on the customer, then you need a new job. Especially when most of it is about the customer.

 

[RiversideBunny]

Well, I was in the infantry, does that count as being harder than working at a theme park? And I wasn't making crap wages either. Anyone going to host a pity party for me?

Benjamin B. Whitledge: Every man in my whole family's been in the infantry, clear back to my great-grampa. You know what he done?
[Will shakes his head "no"]
Benjamin B. Whitledge: Fought with Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville, that's what.
Will Stockdale: [laughs] Licked him good, too, I bet!

Will Stockdale: Hey, Ben. Maybe you'll get to like the Air Force. Zoomin' all over the sky - and shouting, "Roger" and "Wilco" and everything. Maybe it won't be so bad.
Benjamin B. Whitledge: Bad? You know what they call men in the Air Force?
[Will shakes his head "no"]
Benjamin B. Whitledge: Air man! Like somethin' out of a dang funny book! Air man! How you gonna like it when somebody calls you "Air man"?
Will Stockdale: By dog, I just don't think I'll stand for it.

from 'No Time For Sergeants'

 

[fosse76]

LOL, this is driving me nuts too. On this board, I'm sure we have plenty of people with harder jobs. People who risk their lives on a daily basis, who routinely work 12 hour, 16 hour and sometimes shifts that go over 24 hours(not uncommon with OR call). People who may very well get shot at on the job and people who educate children while trying to deal with some parents that don't know(or care) how to raise kids.

Now, I can tell what some are going to say..these jobs probably make more than most CMs.. True, but all of these jobs either require schooling and/or extensive OTJ training.

And aren't customer service related...so even on a bad day it doesn't have any real effect on the work goals.

IMHO, comparing a CMs job to someone in the military, law enforcement, healthcare, education etc is simply presumptious at best and stupid at worst. Can it be hard at times? I'm sure, but as hard as some other jobs? Certainly not.

Beat me to it! I had to laugh at that. Being in the infantry and working at Disney World are so completely different that it is absurd to try and compare. The infantry isn't a customer service job, and the experiences aren't comparative. And anyone who claims to have worked a customer service job and not have an "off" day (to where customers would notice) is probably lying.

That said, I think we all may be talking about different types of rudeness. I have personally never seen a CM at Disney be proactively rude or smarmy with a guest for no reason. I've seen a few who seemed, at worst, complacent. And also, there's a difference between being able to shrug off an abusve or irate guest during a normal shift and dealing with abusive/irate guests during a 12-hour shift. And believe me, working customer service for a museum or phone company or theater is entirely different from working at a theme park. I had though I had seen the worst of people when I worked at Six Flags. Then I worked at a high-profile art museum right out of college and realized Six Flags was a piece of cake in comparison. I had never believed there could be so much nastiness directed at people. So while some may think working in a Casino dealing with drunks is the same thing, it's not.

Are people forced to take these jobs? No. But if it's between that and starving or being homeless, then they have no real choice. But I doubt that applies to more than a small majority of people at Disney. And it doesn't matter. Nobody goes through life, goes to work, and wishes they weren't there. Everyone has days where they would rather be somewhere else. Does that mean they should take it out on guests? Of course not. But I doubt any of the people here espousing "it's their job to be nice 24-7" is talking about someone just being outright rude. The mere fact a CM doesn't have a smile on his face doesn't make him rude.

Most CMs do a good job and I appreciate those who act professionally, no matter what job they hold. But again, if you don't like your job and are going to decide to take it out on the customer, then you need a new job. Especially when most of it is about the customer.

That's a very broad assumption that simply because a CM may have overreacted and treated a guest rudely, or isn't jumping off the walls happy, means they don't like their job. And it's ridiculous to say they should find another line work for having an off day. And frontline CMs can't just walk away if they feel they need to calm down because they might overreact. A salesperson can hide in the back for a few minutes at a store, a waitress can take a little longer returning to the table or ask someone else to get the drink order, a phone operator can pass the call along. CMs are stuck. So when they are having a bad day (for whatever reason) should they just quit? Call-in sick and be subject to disciplinary action? No one is advocating that CMs have a right to be rude...but to pretend that their being rude means they don't like their job and should find another line of work is just as presumptuous and mis-guided as comparing a job in the infantry to that of a CM.

 

[draybook]

So while some may think working in a Casino dealing with drunks is the same thing, it's not.

You're right, because people at theme parks don't throw feces at you or try to ________ on you. They don't spit at you or throw chewed up cigars tips at you. They don't throw punches at you at quite the frequent rate as those at the casinos.

 

[fosse76]

You're right, because people at theme parks don't throw feces at you or try to ________ on you. They don't spit at you or throw chewed up cigars tips at you. They don't throw punches at you at quite the frequent rate as those at the casinos.

And as such, you don't have to sit there and take it with a smile on your face, unlike Disney employees. And while park guests probably aren't as violent as gamblers, they do get violent. They shove, punch, spit, etc. I've seen people push and shove an usher at a Broadway show because they didn't like the seat they bought! Don't think because you worked at a Casino you have patent of obscene behavior.

 

[rsoxguy]

And as such, you don't have to sit there and take it with a smile on your face, unlike Disney employees. And while park guests probably aren't as violent as gamblers, they do get violent. They shove, punch, spit, etc. I've seen people push and shove an usher at a Broadway show because they didn't like the seat they bought! Don't think because you worked at a Casino you have patent of obscene behavior.

The new staff at WDW Security.

 

[raven]

Let me explain to people that might not know this. A lot of regular CMs (not CPs) are local. They have grown up with Disney in their backyard all of their life. I've attended a lot of 20 year anniversary parties for such CMs and when asked why they wanted to work at WDW, nearly all of them had the same answer: "It was a job/I needed money." Orlando, as of the latest I heard, has a 10% unemloyment rate. People are coming here to work, not to be happy 24/7. It's a little bit of money for them because they know they can get a job here when it's harder to find elsewhere. There are people from around the country that work here as well and a lot of them have moved here to actually work for Disney because they have a desire to. But the income is considerably lower than what they were making. Their dream was to work for a wonderful company but the pay doesn't reflect their dream, it reflects their struggles. And having the same ammount of pressure working for Disney as their older jobs only with much lower pay doesn't exactly make for a "magical day." They truely are acting out there and a lot of people are not happy.

So forgive if one should happen to be a little upset at the situation. They simply may be trying to live their dream only to find out it's harder than it seems.

 

[luckyeye13]

And as such, you don't have to sit there and take it with a smile on your face, unlike Disney employees. And while park guests probably aren't as violent as gamblers, they do get violent. They shove, punch, spit, etc. I've seen people push and shove an usher at a Broadway show because they didn't like the seat they bought! Don't think because you worked at a Casino you have patent of obscene behavior.

Add to that the fact that Disney CMs are not allowed to physically defend themselves. Although I do not advocate violence, I do believe that violence in the case of self-defense isn't wrong, as long as only the amount of force necessary to defend oneself is used. (Beating someone senseless because they slap you, for example, would not be considered reasonable.) If, however, you were to do such a thing at Disney to protect yourself or another CM or Guest, you would be instantly terminated. Even though I was lucky enough to not experience Guests who went to that extreme, the dilemma did cross my mind on more than one occasion when Guests would spout off threats and the natural worry of threats turning to action seeped in. (In one case, after a Guest threatened a CM near me at the MK Monorail station, I even called Security and then held the train in the station until they arrived to deal with the Guest.)

In case you are wondering what I would do in such a case (since I did present the quandary), I would take the termination. As much as I love Disney, there is no job there (or anywhere else, for that matter) that is worth getting beaten into a bloody pulp for while just taking it. In fact, even the monorail situation could have gotten me in trouble as Disney cares much more about everything being pixie-dust-happy than their CMs working in an environment free of abuse. One night at another monorail station, one of the CMs also held a train after calling Security on an abusive Guest who went so far as to threaten to put out his cigarette in the CM's eye after the CM asked him to put it out. In that case, when the manager heard over the radio why the train was being held, he scolded the CM for doing that and canceled the security call. Then, he personally went over to that station and told the CM that he would be reprimanded if he ever did that again. In my case, I had a much more understanding manager (one of the few who balances the needs of both Guests and CMs in a way that is fair to both) that night and I was only required to leave MK about 20 minutes early in order to fill out a witness statement about the incident. (For the record, I would still do the same thing even with the other manager on duty because while I care for Disney, I don't care to be in a potentially unsafe work environment. Then, I would have filed a grievance.)

I have worked in customer service jobs for most of the last 7 years, but Disney is the only employer that does not take abuse of its employees seriously. As another poster mentioned, employees at other businesses can go in the back and destress for a few moments after such a situation, while, at Disney, this is almost never allowed. Thus, it all just builds up, rather than being released while it is still at a more healthy level. When I would be getting yelled at by passengers for refusing them travel because of their travel documents (an issue I often dealt with, even when another agent was checking-in the passenger, due to my expertise in the matter), it would sometimes frazzle me a bit. However, once that was finished with (and it wasn't usually too long as I never changed my mind after assessing a passenger's documents), I could just go in the back for a few minutes. Then, I could come back out and continue to provide the premium service that was expected of me. Also, other companies are much more proactive when it comes to making sure that customers know the consequences if they continue to misbehave. One evening, when I was working at Air Canada, a man from Quebec went into a rage in French after I told him that his flight to Montreal was canceled. (One look out the window would explain why most short flights were not operating on any airline in or out of Newark that day.) My French is pretty good, but not at the level of arguing, so a native French-speaking agent offered to help. We still didn't get anywhere with the passenger and he just got louder and more aggressive, so the lead came over and told us in English that, if the passenger kept up his behavior, the airport police would be called straight away. Apparently, the passenger's level of English was good enough to understand what that meant, and, while still quite upset with the situation, he backed down very quickly. If a coordinator even thought of doing that at WDW, he would probably not be a coordinator by the next shift. Even at the ski resort where I am working for the season, one of the leaders of a school group lost her free chaperone ticket privileges, in part, after she threatened to "reach over the counter and strangle" the staff at the group check-in area because her tickets weren't printed straight away. At Disney, she would probably have received a sprinkling of pixie dust and a cookie for that outburst.

I really think that businesses in the US need to put up the same signs that I see all over the UK that say that the employees there have a right to work without physical or verbal abuse and that such abuse will not be tolerated. It is a mystery to me why I don't see that in more places here, especially since Americans aren't exactly known to be the most even-tempered group on the planet. Even British Airways, which I worked at for more than two years, doesn't have those signs in their US airports, though I did notice them at London Heathrow for the first time when I went through in 2008. Heck, I'd even be for seeing that printed at the bottom of Disney park maps. It may not be magical, but safety and courtesy both come before show, anyway.

I am not saying this as an excuse for actual rude behavior, such as snide comments or insults, towards a Guest or customer. This is more about what some people on this board label rude when it really isn't, such as a CM who doesn't have a smile pasted on their face 24/7. And, as a side note, while people in America get all worked up when someone has the audacity to not smile at them, smiling at strangers in many other countries would cause others to think that the person is not normal. Since many CMs are from other countries (even if, like in my case, it may not be obvious), there could be some of that in play, too. I actually had that problem back when I lived in Russia (where I was born) because I have always been a happy, smiley person. As a result, there were indeed people there who thought that not everything was quite right with me.

I guess the bottom line of all this is that everyone should remember that the person loading them on a ride, giving them their pizza, making sure that Guests stay in designated areas to prevent getting run over by parade floats, or having any other customer or Guest interaction is just that... A PERSON! Thus, it is best to treat them as such. People have feelings and will always end up letting some of the stressful ones slip out. (I don't care if you say that you're at 100% all the time because you are not. It's just not possible unless you are a god or some breed of superhuman.) On the flipside, though, most people also respond to positive things, such as a simple "thank you." Sometimes, the customer might even get recognized for being considerate. A few years back, Delta Air Lines had a "Good goes around" campaign that gave out SkyMiles or other rewards to customers for simple things, like holding a door for someone. When I worked at British Airways, on days when customers were needed for upgrades to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) or Club World (business class with flat beds and all that cool stuff), we were always told to look for people who were really nice (and appropriately dressed, in the case of Club World). Thus, if a customer was really nice to the check-in agent, the agent entered a comment into the system that flagged the customer as suitable for an upgrade, if needed. Likewise, if the person was a total jerk, they would likely get a not suitable for upgrade comment entered against their record. In a more Disney-related example, WDW gave out special pins a few years back to Guests for doing something courteous. The Guest would keep one of the pins and then hand out the other one to another Guest whom they spotted doing something courteous.

 

[draybook]

I'd like to add that even though I only experienced one bad CM, and I never said anything to her or Guest Relations, I know these people work hard for little money.

Also, I can't say that I've ever had a job that allowed employees to "fight back".